"The
good writers are Henry James, Stephen Crane, and Mark Twain. That's not
the order they're good in. There is no order for good writers.... All
modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. If you read it you must
stop where the Nigger Jim is stolen from the boys. That is the real
end. The rest is just cheating. But it's the best book we've had. All
American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has
been nothing as good since." -- from Ernest Hemingway, The
Green Hills of Africa (1934)